Oil level inspection system for railroad car truck using image processing

Abstract

A system for inspecting an oil level in each part of a railroad car truck includes: an imaging unit that obtains an image of an oil level gauge; an oil level inspection unit that inspects whether or not the oil level in each part of the railroad car truck is within a predetermined range based on the image of the oil level gauge obtained by the imaging unit; a voice input unit adapted for an inspector to input, via voice, an inspection result; a voice processing unit that determines whether or not the inspection result inputted via the voice input unit is good based on the inputted inspection result, and converts a determination result into displayable data; a display unit that displays an oil level inspection result and the determination result; and a storage unit that stores, as data, the oil level inspection result and the determination result.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A railroad car truck oil level inspection system, comprising:
 an imaging unit that obtains an image of an oil level gauge provided in each part of a railroad car truck; 
 an oil level inspection unit that performs image processing of the image of the oil level gauge obtained by the imaging unit, to thereby inspect whether or not an oil level in the each part of the railroad car truck is within a predetermined range; 
 a voice input unit adapted for an inspector to input, via voice, an inspection result of inspecting whether or not an oil level in the each part of the railroad car truck is within the predetermined range; 
 a voice processing unit that performs a voice recognition process of the inspection result inputted via the voice input unit, to thereby determine whether or not the inputted inspection result is good, and converts a determination result into displayable data; 
 a display unit that displays an oil level inspection result obtained by the oil level inspection unit and the determination result obtained by the voice processing unit; and 
 a storage unit that stores, as data, the oil level inspection result and the determination result converted into displayable data. 
 
     
     
       2. The railroad car truck oil level inspection system according to  claim 1 ,
 wherein the voice input unit is further adapted to input, via voice, a result of a processing and a reason for the processing based on the inspection result by the oil level inspection unit or the inspection result by the inspector; 
 wherein the voice processing unit further converts the result of the processing and the reason for the processing into displayable data; 
 wherein the display unit further displays the result of the processing and the reason for the processing converted into displayable data by the voice processing unit; and 
 wherein the storage unit further stores, as data, the result of the processing and the reason for the processing converted into displayable data by the voice processing unit. 
 
     
     
       3. The railroad car truck oil level inspection system according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 an input unit provided to input a keyword for searching; and 
 a search unit that performs a search of at least one of the oil level inspection results, the determination results, the results of the processings and the reasons for the processings stored in the storage unit based on the keyword inputted via the input unit, and displays a search result on the display unit. 
 
     
     
       4. The railroad car truck oil level inspection system according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 an output unit that outputs, in a form of a report, at least one of the oil level inspection result, the determination result and the search result searched by the search unit, which are displayed on the display unit. 
 
     
     
       5. The railroad car truck oil level inspection system according to  claim 1 , wherein the imaging unit includes a diffusion ring that deflects and diffuses an incident light around a periphery of a lens. 
     
     
       6. The railroad car truck oil level inspection system according to  claim 5 , wherein the imaging unit has a display portion in a side of a body of the imaging unit to display a captured image in a tilted manner relative to the side of the body.